“Ethical Markets celebrates global citizens and none more deserving that our wonderful friend and colleague Rebecca Hoffberger, founder and CEO of the wondrous American Visionary Art Museum, www.avam.orgwe now hail on its 25th Anniversary. We love you, Rebecca!
~Hazel Henderson, Editor”
NOW CELEBRATING 25 YEARS IN BALTIMORE, AVAM IS A REFLECTION OF THE WOMAN WHO CREATED IT.
BY LAUREN LAROCCA
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRISTOPHER MYERS
Even before you enter the American Visionary Art Museum, the grounds set you up for what you’ll experience inside. Mosaic sculptures stand near the entrance on Key Highway in Federal Hill—there’s a shining, giant-sized egg and a bedazzled tree sculpture called The Universal Tree of Life that throws sparkling light onto the sidewalk. A small Meditation Chapel, made of found wood, allows space for private retreat and is open to everyone. The word LOVE spans across the brick Tall Sculpture Barn in glowing, neon letters. More words—“O SAY CAN YOU SEE,” a nod to Francis Scott Key—shine on the Jim Rouse Visionary Center next door, with its huge metal “nest”. But perhaps the greatest spectacle is AVAM’s main exhibits building, whose curved exterior wall is covered with a glass and mirrored mosaic that reflects the light of Baltimore amid its spiraling design.
While most museums look like fortresses, with large and imposing entrances that you enter head on, at AVAM, you slide into the building from the side. Once inside, a kind of gravitational force is at work. Its first, long hallway slopes upward. As you walk, you spiral inward toward the building’s center, ascending and rotating. Perhaps your conscious mind doesn’t pick up on this movement, which continues throughout the museum, but your subconscious mind certainly must. Like the exterior, the interior hallways and stairwell are curved, rather than the usual symmetrical angles, and their organic shapes are reminiscent of being inside some kind of large, cosmic womb. Gallery walls are rounded, too, and painted a collection of vibrant colors. And throughout its three floors are pieces of art made with unusual mediums. You might see a sculpture made from thousands of toothpicks or a picture painted with mustard and ketchup, because those were the only materials the artist had available. Wall texts merge the artwork with science, philosophy, and spirituality from around the world.
The brainchild (or perhaps lovechild) of founding director Rebecca Hoffberger, AVAM was the first major museum of its kind when it was created, showcasing the work of self-taught artists and visionary thinkers. Like the art inside and the woman behind it all, AVAM and its events are fueled by intuition. You’re meant to move about the museum intuitively. There is no right or wrong way to go from gallery to gallery. The structure itself gives you the freedom to explore however you’d like.
“It is very important to view the physical building as a manifestation of Rebecca Hoffberger’s spirit,” says architect Alex Castro, who brought the museum to life in 1995, along with architect Rebecca Swanston. “It is unique because she is unique, not because of any special architectural manipulations. The structure is her spirit made concrete.”